A conventional cable labeling system includes a cable and a label which directly adheres to the cable. Typically, the back of the label is pre-coated with an adhesive. As a result, a user is able to peel off the label from a plastic coated sheet (or print such a label from a dispenser) and press the label onto the outer surface of the cable, i.e., directly onto the cable insulation. As a result, the label sticks to the cable.
Such cable labeling is common in certain electronic equipment settings. In such a setting, the user typically plugs the end of the cable into a cable port, and fastens the label near an end of the cable to mark the cable as belonging to that cable port. Accordingly, the user is able to properly identify the cable as the particular cable which is supposed to connect to that particular cable port. As a result, if the cable were ever temporarily disconnected from the cable port, the user is able to identify that cable perhaps among other similar cables for subsequent reconnection to that cable port. Moreover, there is no need to trace the cable back to its other connection location for proper identification thus saving the user time and effort, e.g., in some situations the other end of the cable may connect to a device in an adjacent cabinet or to a device at a remote location separated by a wire-way making the cable difficult to follow.
In a high density cable application (e.g., at an I/O interface to a data storage array, at a network patch panel, etc.), many cables may run in the same direction and connect to an array of ports on a device in a relatively tight space. In such an application, labels on the cables enable the user to distinguish the many cables from each other. Accordingly, if the user needs to quickly find a particular cable among the many cables (e.g., to temporarily disconnect or replace a cable), the user is able to conveniently navigate among the many cables based on the labels.